One solution to drug delivery and/or bioavailability issues in pharmaceutical development is converting known drugs to prodrugs. Typically, in a prodrug, a polar functional group (e.g., a carboxylic acid, an amino group, a hydroxyl group, etc.) is masked by a promoiety, which is labile under physiological conditions. Accordingly, prodrugs are usually transported through hydrophobic biological barriers such as membranes and typically possess superior physicochemical properties than the parent drug.
Pharmacologically effective prodrugs are non-toxic and are preferably selectively cleaved at the locus of drug action. Ideally, cleavage of the promoiety occurs rapidly and quantitatively with the formation of non-toxic by-products (i.e., the hydrolyzed promoiety).
The acyloxyalkoxycarbonyl functionality is an example of a promoiety that may be used to modulate the physiochemical properties of pharmaceuticals (Alexander, U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,230; Alexander, U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,907; Alexander et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,391). Typically, 1-(acyloxy)-alkyl derivatives of a pharmaceutical possess superior bioavailability, may be less irritating to topical and gastric mucosal membranes and are usually more permeable through such membranes when compared to the parent drug.
However, although 1-(acyloxy)-alkyl ester derivatives of alcohols and 1-(acyloxy)-alkyl carbamate derivatives of amines have been frequently used to mask these polar functional groups in pharmaceuticals, existing synthetic methods for preparing these desirable derivatives are inadequate. Methods disclosed in the art for synthesis of acyloxyalkyl esters and carbamates are typically multi-step routes that utilize unstable intermediates and/or toxic compounds or salts and accordingly are difficult to perform on large scale (Alexander, U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,057; Lund, U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,868; Alexander, U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,057; Saari et al., European Patent 0416689B1).
Accordingly, there is a need for a new synthesis of 1-(acyloxy)-alkyl derivatives that proceeds rapidly and efficiently, which is amenable to scale-up and proceeds through readily accessible synthetic precursors.